[VIDEO] Is El Retiro 🇨🇴 the Safest Place to Raise a Family in Colombia?

My buddy Chris has raised his kids for 6 years in El Retiro, a town up the mountain from Medellín, in a townhome he designed himself. He told me it might be the safest place in Colombia to raise children.

I’ve got 3 kids, so I went up to check…

Chris landed in Bogotá on a South America trip 12 years ago and never finished it. When his girl got pregnant, Medellín had smog red alerts for 2 months, so they left the valley. They tried Llanogrande and La Ceja first. Then he found a lot in El Retiro on Facebook.

The townhome

It’s a 3 bed, 3.5 bath with about 150 m² inside, or 186 m² the way Colombia measures it, which counts the garage, patio and balconies. Every bedroom has a full bathroom. The kitchen is one you won’t find in most Colombian homes. It has an oven, an induction cooktop, a dishwasher and a garbage disposal, and the outlets are flipped to American style. He’s asking 1.2 billion Colombian pesos, about $380,000 at today’s rate.

The family test

El Retiro had 2 murders in 2023, 5 in 2024 and almost none in 2025. Averaged out, that’s roughly 10 per 100,000 residents, against 12 for Medellín and 26 for Colombia as a whole. Costa Rica, where my family lived for over a year, runs 17.

Vermont School, an International Baccalaureate (IB) school, is in town. Theodoro Hertzl outscored it on the Saber 11, Colombia’s national exam for 11th graders.

There’s urgent care in town. The best hospitals, Clínica Somer and San Vicente Fundación, are toward Rionegro, and Medellín is 30 to 45 minutes away for anything complex.

So why is he selling?

It sounds like a red flag. His answer, at 16:02, is the most honest endorsement of this region you’ll hear. The video ends on El Retiro vs Rionegro and which families fit each.

You can reach Chris about the townhome here.

If Colombia is on your list, 2 Colombian cities made my free guide to the 11 cities in Latin America where $50,000 buys a brand new apartment. Grab it here.